MN Boys’ Hockey Hub

Bloomington Jefferson hangs on to beat Lakeville South

Jaguars see big lead cut to one twice in the closing minutes

Lakeville South rallied in the third period, but Bloomington Jefferson countered and held on for a 6-4 win over the Cougars on Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Ryan Graff score three first-period goals for the Jaguars. Graff won the offensive-zone faceoff back to Charlie Straus who fired a shot from the point. Graff tipped the shot in the bottom right corner of the net just 1:30 into the game.

A minute later, Graff gathered the puck on the penalty kill and fired a pass to Nolan Miles. Miles took a wrist shot and found the bottom left of the goal past Daniel Swail. Graff scored his second goal off a rebound sent from Johnny Panvica.

Straus had the lone goal in the second period catching a clean cross-ice pass from Jack Cizek and scoring bar-down.

Nick Swaney scored on the power play bringing the Cougars within a goal of Jefferson late in the third period. Sixteen seconds later, Tyler Johnson banked home a rebound sent from Straus at the point to counter South's goal.

South pulled Swail in favor of an extra attacker in the final minutes. Patrick Lauderdale fed the puck to Nick Oelrich in the slot and Oelrich scored his third goal of the game bringing the Cougars back within one goal.

South continued to work the puck with an extra man, but Jefferson cleared the puck, and Miles chased it down for a wide-angle shot that found the empty net, clinching the game for the Jags.